13 students with special needs to write SSC exams in digital mode in A.P.
Andhra Pradesh Samagra Shiksha State Project Director B. Srinivasa Rao on March 14 (Thursday) said that 13 students with special needs from Rural Development Trust (RDT) High School for Inclusive Education in Anantapur would write the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations in digital mode.
Last year, six students with special needs from the same school passed the exam without a scribe or help and created a national record. “The six students created history last year by writing their examinations in digital mode,” said Mr. Rao, adding that the students wrote their 11th class examination this year in science, mathematics and economics as main subjects.
Mr. Rao said that the Samagra Shiksha was designing a special project called ‘Vision 2025Inclusive Andhra’, besides extending digital support to the children with special needs. He said the idea was to enable children with special needs such as blindness, low vision and hearing impairment, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, autism and also students who cannot use print effectively due to neuro and orthopaedic medical conditions (Specific Learning Disabilities) write their exams like normal students using technology. He said under the project, 1,000 students were identified and around 2000 teachers were given a comprehensive training to cater to the technologyrelated needs of the special children.
A new initiative called Digitally Accessible Pedagogy (DAP) is also being implemented to help these children overcome digital barriers, he said.